Teaching children about skin cancer prevention: why wait for adolescence?
The baseline knowledge about skin cancer prevention of 983 children aged 8 to 12 years was assessed by a pretest questionnaire. After the pretest, half were given a formal presentation about skin cancer prevention. The other half participated in an informal, question-and-answer session, which covered all material from the formal presentation. Two weeks later, all students completed an identical post-test. The students had a high baseline level of knowledge about skin cancer prevention. Knowledge increased for most items in the post-test questionnaire. In all age groups there was no difference in results between the formal and interactive teaching sessions, except among eight-year-olds, for whom the formal presentation was more effective. As much solar skin damage occurs before adolescence, the younger age group is the important target for skin cancer prevention programs.
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University of Sydney Department of Paediatrics & Child Health, New Children's Hospital.
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D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control*